Screen Backlight cycling off and on while on battery?

[fefrie]

I'm running on battery power at the moment, and occasionally even while typing or using the mouse, the backlight will turn itself off and then back on in the time frame of about a second.

The aggravating thing is that it should be doing so as it is too soon for the screen to turn itself off since the 'turn monitor off' under power setting is set for 2 mintues.

In addition, if I don't do anything when the screen turns itself off, the back light will turn itself back on.

This seems to happen a bit more often when I have the screen brightness turned to minimum.

[EDIT]

I sure hope it's not this GPU issue:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=370638

What I do see when it happens though is that I can still see the graphics on the screen, just no backlight....of which always comes back on after a second.

[Harryc]

My guess is the lid close switch, inverter, or back-light, but since it occurs on battery only I'd also try to disable all Power Management settings to see if the symptoms change.

[fefrie]

I was thinking that too. It sort of seems that the power management drivers are 'fighting' each other.

[fefrie]

I'm guessing, but I think that the setting "Lower refresh rate" on the battery maximizer wizzard was creating the flicker. I'm guessing that there is only one refresh rate (60hz) and something was interfering with the screen. I've turned it off, and all is well.

Thankfully it's not a bad GPU issue.